Daily photos by Gary Cosby Jr.Cool running: Eager and apprehensive Polar Bear Club members plunge into the Tennessee River at Riverwalk Marina on Monday in what they consider to be a cool way to kick off the new year.

Taking the annual plungeLocal Polar Bears get into the swim of the new year

The Decatur Polar Bears gave many reasons for diving into the freezing Tennessee River on New Year’s Day, but James Sanfred may have hit the nail on the head.

Does anyone have a towel? Veteran Polar Bear Club members Elizabeth Pettey and Jana Hood are followed out of the water by Joy Bolding after Monday’s dip in the river. The temperature was 40 degrees at the time of their noon plunge.

“We’re all crazy, I guess,” said Sanfred of Hartselle.

Sanfred was one of more than 60 thrill seekers who stripped down to swimsuits Monday in winter temperatures and plunged into the river by the Riverwalk Marina.

According to the National Weather Service, the temperature was 40 degrees when the Polar Bears dived in at noon, but the biting wind made it feel more like 34 degrees.

The cold-water plunge has been an annual tradition for Wayne Holliday, 69, for 22 years. He was the first in Decatur to brave the freezing river in 1985.

Holliday said he jumped in by himself for the first three years.

Serena McCulloch, right, steels herself for the jump into the frigid water.

“It’s awfully lonely by yourself, so in ’88, I suckered some other people into going with me,” he said.

“It’s a lot less painful when you have other people jumping in with you.”

The Decatur Polar Bears expanded to more than 70 jumpers at the start of the millennium. This year saw a slight decrease.